Jack Veneno

Jack Veneno (born Rafael Sánchez; February 2, 1942) is a retired professional wrestler and politician.^[1][2]

Professional wrestling career

He became interested in wrestling as a teen, watching the Mexican luchador El Santo.^[3] Also known as "El hijo de Doña Tatica", he worked for many years on Colorvision channel 9 during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, on a wrestling show called Lucha Libre Internacional.^[4] He was the main star of the show as well as the owner of the production company Dominicana de Espectaculos.

Jack Veneno vs. Ric Flair

He faced Ric Flair in 1982, where right before Flair passed out, the time limit ran out. The fans then celebrated Veneno "winning" the NWA World Heavyweight Championship,^[5] although his title reign is not officially recognized by the NWA.^[6] Outside the Dominican Republic, he is famous for his matches against Ric Flair.^[7] Flair said that he let Veneno defeat him in order to avoid a riot among the Dominicans against him.^[8]

Veneno retired himself in 2000.^[3]

In 2007 a trailer for a documentary featuring the lost footage of his match with Flair aired throughout the Dominican Republic, but was not released at that time. In April 2015 the documentary was finally released on the internet for free, and shows the only footage known to exist of the famous match, the film "Jack; La Historia de Jack Veneno" features Jack and others discussing his career and life. The film was produced by Benjamin Irish, a protege of Veneno, and is widely attributed to Veneno's resurgence of celebrity in the country after 2007.

The film can be viewed at

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=248561775504303&id=246051232422024

The film is said to be the most watched movie made in The Dominican Republic. Facebook logged over 265,000 views as of June 2016. In a country believed to have one computer per every sixteen households, some estimates have speculated that approximately half of the country watched the film. Perhaps the most legitimate estimate is from the producer, Benjamin Irish, who claimed that as of June 2016 total distribution outlets resulted in around 900,000 views, or roughly 10% of the country's population.

Political career

Although retired from wrestling, he ran for Mayor of Santo Domingo Norte, one of the Santo Domingo Province municipalities, on the 2006 Congressional and Municipal Elections with the Institutional Social Democratic Bloc party.^[3] In 2007, he was appointed by the Dominican Republic president Leonel Fernández as Vice-Minister of Sports.^[4][9]

In wrestling

• Signature moves
  • Sleeper Hold
  • Figure 4 Leglock
  • Piledriver
• Nicknames
  • El hijo de Doña Tatica (The son of Mrs. Tatica)

Championships and accomplishments

• Dominicana de Espectaculos
  • Light Heavyweight Championship (6 times) ^[10]
  • Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship (2 times) ^[11]
  • World Tag Team Championship (7 times) - with Puño De Hierro (2), El Caballero Negro (2), Mr. Haiti (1), Maravilla (1) and Raffy Sanchez (1) ^{[12] [13]}
  • National Welterweight Championship (1 time) ^[14]
  • Dominican Republic Heavyweight Championship (6 times) ^[15]
• National Wrestling Alliance
  • NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time, unrecognized)¹
• World Wrestling Council
  • WWC North American Tag-Team Championship (1 time) - with José Rivera ^[16]
  • Served as Vice-Minister of Sports (2007-2012)

1 ^ Veneno's reign is not recognized by the National Wrestling Alliance.

References